FSFE Newsletter - October 2011

Laundruino - The laundry hack and laser sharks

FSFE Fellow Michael Clemens has a solution for all of you out there who want
to know when their laundry in the washing machine is done. In
his article he explains how to build get a "Laundruino", based on the
Free Software microcontroller Arduino, which informs you of
the status of your laundry cycle.

These creative and educational guides are the result of people sharing
blueprints and source code, and are made possible by the fact that the authors
are able to change how these computers work. They can modify them, and share
their knowledge and ideas with others. With Free Software and free hardware,
people can really understand the technology that surrounds them, and change it
to meet their needs. And who knows, maybe soon your editor's dream of sharks
with lasers will become reality.

Euro 2012 champion to speak at FSCONS

Guido Arnold from FSFE's Education Team presented the
results of the Euro 2012 qualification in Free Software and Open Standards for
September
2nd , September
3rd and September
6th . On November 12th, he will give a presenation in FSFE's track at FSCONS about the developments of Free Software
in education and how to participate in the team's activities.

Something completely different

"In Facebook you are not the customer, you are the product", writes our
President Karsten Gerloff in his
article on recent announcements by Facebook, and decentralised social networks.

Check out the latest Fellowship Interview with Stefan
Kangas, who talks about Fripost as a
new community developing Free, privacy-preserving email services in a
reliable way.

Get Active: New merchandise - Laser sharks with Fellowship logo?

We want to think about some new merchandise, and we would really like your
fresh ideas. So please help us brainstorming; send proposals for t-shirt
designs and other merchandise ideas to discussion@fsfeurope.org, or if you
prefer, directly to me at the address below. It does not matter if your ideas
are crazy or unrealistic. Send them in and help us to be creative.